Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1887-08-12
The Kentucky Lesson.

1t matters not whether General
Buckner's majority for Governor OF
Kentucky shall be 5000 or 10000
when the official count comes along.
When the Democrats of Kentucky
can't muster 10000 majority in q
State campaign with an unusually
full vote polled, it means that the
leaven of revolution is beginning to
work in Kentucky politics, and the
headlong leaders who have been rush.
ing on on the basis that the greatness
and prosperity of the whole nation
centered in the Whisky Ring, would
do we'll to call a halt long enough to
look around and take an account of
stock.
1t is idle to say that State contests
don't call out the vote according to
party convictions. 1t is just such
struggles which develop the actual
convictions of tie people, and which
give the most emphatic admonitions
to party leaders. In national con-
tests many voters will sacrifice much
for party sake; but when State issues
are vitalized and enlist general popu-
lar interest, the people admonish and
chasten reckless leaders by open re-
volt. Sometimes they break square
ly to the opposition, but the convent
ent halfway political base of Prohibi-
ton or Labor serves the purpose of
calling halt in offensive party policy
without getting clear off into the
ranks of the enemy.
The Democrats of Kentucky have
not been worsted by any still hunt.
The Republicans put their candidate
for Governor in the field, declared
their belief on national and State
issues, took the stump in manly de-
fense of their faith, and contested the
battle at every step. In like manner
the Prohibitiouists unfurled their cold
water flag, went 20 the people with
their cause, aud they with the Labor
voters, confessed the defeat of the
Democracy to be their objective point.
1t was square battle for and against
Kentucky Democracy "as she is
taught" and if it is not a Democratic
defeat, it is a victory of that class
that another such victory would
make Kentucky Republican.
Kentucky has been run since the
war on high-pressure Whisky Ring
politics, and the men who ruled so
successfully for many years In sub
mission to a fearful and oppressive
monopoly, finally assumed to rule
the nation as the tail of the Kentucky
Whisky Ring dog. In order to main
tain the Whisky monopoly there must
be a high tax on whisky, and when
the manufacturers who are in the ring
overproduce, they expect the govern
ment to bank them over for a more
favorable market. In short, they de-
mand high tax on whisky to brace
up the lines of the monopoly, but
they reserve the right to pay or not
pay the tax, as may be most convent
ent for the manufacturers. To sus-
tain the high internal taxes, the Ken
lucky leaders logically drifted into
free trade, and their political policy,
practically stated, fasors protection to
single monopoly and destruction to
every other manufacturing industry.
1t is this rapid drift of Kentucky
Democratic leaders to whisky monop-
oily and their attempt to force it up
on the nation with all its logical con-
sequences, that has unsettled the pol
itics of Kentucky and has forced
thousands of Democratsto join the Pro
hibition or Labor parties to admon-
ish those who are rushing the Demo
Gratis to destruction. Beyond the IN.
.terests Of the Whiskey Ring and
the free trade dream that comes from
it, and the frantic demands for old
time spoils and plunder, no public
question has found favor with the
Kentucky Democratic leaders; and
they are now brought up with
round turn by the people, because the
people want schools and factories
quite as well as they want distilleries
or party plnnder. This is the lesson
Of the Kentucky election, and if the
Democrats of that State fail to see in
it the handwriting on the wall
against prostituting great party to
whisky monopoly, free trade and
party pluuder, it will be safe to class
the State of Henry Clay and of the
American System as doubtful in
future political contests.-Phitadel-
phia Times.